Come unto Christ.
Understand His word.

Why I Created Scripture Realized

When I was about ten years old, I was listening to my mother talk about the scriptures when something happened that stayed with me for the rest of my life.

For just a moment, the world of the Book of Mormon felt real.

In my mind I saw what looked like a small wooden tower surrounded by tropical trees. It wasn’t a dream, and I don’t claim it was a vision. It was simply one of those rare moments that leaves a lasting impression on a person. What struck me most wasn’t what I saw—it was what I felt.

For a brief moment, I felt as though I had been there.

As though the people described in the scriptures were real people who had lived real lives in real places.

That experience sparked a lifelong curiosity that never left me.

I wanted to know where these people lived.

I wanted to understand their world.

And most of all, I wanted to know what was actually true.

Years later, while working in the freediving community and studying biblical Hebrew, I found myself wondering about a question that combined two of my greatest interests.

The Book of Mormon describes cities that were destroyed at the time of Christ’s death. If one of those locations had been discovered by archaeologists, I wanted to freedive it.

So I began searching for submerged ancient sites throughout the Americas and around the world.

Most of what I found clearly did not fit the time periods, locations, or descriptions found in the Book of Mormon. But one site stood out.

Beneath the waters of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala lay the submerged site of Samabaj.

As a freediver, I was captivated.

As a student of scripture, I was deeply intrigued.

What began as a search for a place to dive eventually became a years-long journey into ancient languages, archaeology, geography, history, and the cultural world of the scriptures.

The deeper I studied, the more I realized something important:

Most people—including many sincere believers—read scripture through the lens of modern assumptions.

We often imagine ancient prophets, cities, cultures, and events according to our own experiences rather than theirs.

Yet when we begin to understand the languages they spoke, the cultures they lived in, the geography they traveled, and the world they actually knew, the scriptures come alive in entirely new ways.

The people become real.

The stories become tangible.

The teachings become clearer.

And many long-standing assumptions begin to fall away.

Over the years I have studied biblical Hebrew, ancient Near Eastern cultures, Book of Mormon geography, archaeology, linguistics, and the historical context surrounding both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I’ve spent countless hours researching the evidence, evaluating claims, testing theories, and seeking a deeper understanding of the scriptures and the people who wrote them.

What I discovered wasn’t a weaker faith.

It was a richer one.

That’s why I created Scripture Realized.

The purpose of Scripture Realized is not simply to discuss scripture.

It is to help bring scripture into focus.

To help people see the scriptures in their original context.

To explore the history, languages, cultures, and evidence surrounding them.

To challenge assumptions when the evidence warrants it.

And to help us better understand what the prophets, authors, and ancient peoples were actually trying to communicate.

My hope is that through Scripture Realized, the scriptures become more than stories on a page.

That they become real.

That we can better understand them as the people who first received them understood them.

And that by seeing the scriptures more clearly, we can draw closer to the truths they were intended to teach.